Something Special About The Road

August 27, 2007 on 2:21 am | In Abstractions | No Comments

Three years ago you couldn’t have paid me to ride a road bike. “I don’t like riding with cars, I don’t feel safe, I would get REALLY hurt if I fell,” I would say. My husband (Kris) would say,“You go downhill mountain biking at Killington - you’re chances of getting injured are much greater on the trail than on the road.” And of course there are statistics to back up his point. Nevertheless, I had no interest. Welll…I wouldn’t say I had NO interest, but I didn’t have enough interest to justify spending money on something I might not like.

Hubby knew me well enough to know that it was more about me being cheap than anything else. He saw how jazzed I was mountain biking - downhilling, cross country single track or simple fire roads and furthermore, I couldn’t get enough of spinning class. Kris knew cycling was in my blood and it was just a matter of time before I’d answer the call from the road. So…he devised a plan.

Kris and his parents jointly bought me a road bike for Christmas. They gave me a Bianchi Volpe in October, as late December in New England isn’t the best season for road biking. And even though some of the funds came out of our joint checking account, I didn’t complain. I was thrilled; but extrememely nervous - about cars, pace lines, not being able to clip out fast enough at an intersection…did I mention cars?

I vowed to only ride by myself. Again, pace line fear, didn’t want to hold others back, didn’t want to feel pressured. Also, I had a baby at home and it was nice to have true “alone” time. That fall, I got used to the bike and to being on the road instead of the trail and treasured the time by myself.

Winter in New England came quickly. When our daughter went to bed, we headed to the basement to pedal on trainers and watch reruns of Seinfeld. On rare temperate days I’d venture out on the road for 12-15 miles and needless to say, I didn’t get hit by a car (knock on wood!!) or get stuck in my pedals and tip over as I had so feared. Instead I nurtured my growing connection to the road and anxiously awaited the spring thaw.

About a year and a half later, I decided to ditch work one day and attempt my longest ride ever. To that point I had never ridden more than 35 miles, so I set my sites on 50 miles. I did it and was thoroughly impressed with myself. Kris was too, and he was so proud that I had called in to work to ride my bike!

Not long after that, we decided to leave behind long commutes and long winters and head south. In Asheville, we are immersed in a cycling lifestyle; partially because hubby left his sedentary computer tech job behind and pursued his dream of working in a bike shop. But there are other factors at play. In my previous life I left my home in suburbia at 6am to get to my desk by 7am where I stayed until 4pm before getting back in my car for the second hour of the day. Now I live a 5K away so when possible, I bike commute to work. There are far more cyclists in Asheville than in metrowest Boston and plenty of girls that are into the sport too. We got a Burley trailer for Greta who LOVES mountain biking with mommy and daddy at Bent Creek and thinks she is too cool for school when daddy brings her to day care in the Burley. Cycling is definately a lifestyle for our family these days.

And for me, the biggest factor that has kept me engaged over the last year is the female contingent here. In fact, it’s what got me to where I am today, which is literally the 62 mile mark. With two girl pals I completed my first metric century; and not any ol’ metric, but the Hilly Hellacious!

Stretches were tough and I’’m tired for sure but I never once thought “why am I doing this?” Instead I rode in a pace line and thought, there’s something special about the road.

Laurie’s Off-Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell

August 7, 2007 on 10:46 pm | In Racing | No Comments

ORAMM 2007

These are not trails unfamiliar to me, in fact I rode 83% of the ride only 2 weeks prior. So why…why…why was I soooo nervous??? I laid awake for most of the night; when I actually did slip into REM my dreams took every wrong turn on the ORAMM route…why was my head in such turmoil over this??? Breakfast was just not going to happen either…I managed to get some breakfast drink down and compensated my lack of appetite with a gu and started on my Perpetuem drink early. Chris & I arrived in plenty of time to get situated…chat amongst The Misfits…visit the port-a-john waaaaay too many times (at least waiting in line gave me something productive to do) Finally, time to line up with the rest of the crowd and embark on what is known as the hardest ride in WNC….

GO!!!! I manage to stay with the Misfits, drafting…chatting…calming nerves that had
inexplicitly taken over. We turned up our first gravel road where I latched onto Mr. Stone’s rear wheel…not sure if he was so happy about this…he kept looking to see if I was still hanging on! And, yep! I was gonna hang on for as long……ARRRG!!!!!!! MY GLASSES!!! *%$#@#$% NOT AGAIN….I dropped my lenses! See ya boys… (I must get duct tape and secure those things to my head before the next big ride!)

Back on my bike struggling to make up for lost time. We are then directed to a surprise bit of single-track which happens to be a conga line of hike-a-bikers. I snag my place in line right behind out-of-towner local Cory…we babble our way to the top catching up with mindless chatter wishing we were actually ON our bikes pedaling away. At this point I feel compelled to mention that I was once again behind Mr. Stone…of course that would not be the case as soon as the hill began its negative elevation change. Continue reading Laurie’s Off-Road Assault on Mt. Mitchell…